


Glory

by sangi



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-07-23
Updated: 2007-07-23
Packaged: 2018-03-13 15:24:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,396
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3386711
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sangi/pseuds/sangi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She ran and she ran until she hit the soft warmness of something she would always remember, and the smell of Zuko.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Glory

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted in 2007, unedited, and posted again here for archival reasons.

"Bring me home."

**(I.)**

**Glory is like a circle in the water,**

She looks back at the village behind her, back at the people huddling under the wooden poles and around fires, heating themselves, savoring the feel of the warm air of the fires until the wood runs out and they must wait until tomorrow to use anymore. Her lips twitch into a smile and she leans farther into the snow behind her back. Some of it is melting through her jacket but she doesn't care – she's just fine.

From behind her a voice speaks softly, watching the sun fade into the horizon, the water lapping at the edge of the large, broken iceberg. The rough voice is strangely gentle, unusually lulling. "Tonight is your last night as a girl, Katara. Tomorrow you will be a woman."

Katara's blue eyes don't glance back to the old woman behind her, but she knows that the old woman is not looking at her either. "I know." She says into the sunset, into the cold air. The puff of her breath is gas-like before it fades away like the sun and it is night.

The old woman behind her has left, and Katara stands up. The people are gone and the fires are already put out – everyone has gone to sleep. The moon is rising and Katara makes her way over slowly, simply, to the ocean. Taking off the blue leather gloves on her hands and throwing them down on the ground of ice, she gestured with her hands and the water is there in front of her, in a dance.

Finally satisfied with her practice, she reached down and scooped up her gloves, but did not put them back on her hands. Looking once toward the moon, halfway in its journey around the sky, she walks to her own igloo-hut.

Tomorrow is the ceremony.

The sun is just rising but Katara has been awake all night. Whale blubber frying and octopus cakes are the smells that come out of the kitchen, but she cannot stop her meditation until the Elder comes to get her. So she waits.

Now the sun is halfway through its journey, directly in the middle of the sky – directly. The Elder is here, not even knocking on the door to ask permission. The Elder is here, leading her out of her house. The Elder is here, taking her to the hut. The Elder is here, sitting in front of her, watching her breath and blue eyes dilate in the darkness of the hut. No candles are lit, and the door is firmly closed off with ice bended by the Elder.

The time has come, Katara knows. She has known for months that on the day of her fifteenth year beginning, she would officially become a woman. She would do what she wanted to – she could leave the South Pole. She _would_ leave the South Pole.

She wills her heart to stop beating so quickly and her breath to stop coming in such short puffs. The epitome of calm and servitude, she bows her head to the Elder and sits on the hard pad.

"You have come today, Katara of the Southern Water Tribe." The clear voice of the eldest Elder rings out through the room, magnifying it.

Katara feels as if she is in one of the large ice canyons that she has seen while riding on a boat when she was very young, when her father was still here and away from that dreadful war waging on the other side of the world, it seemed. The echo finally dies and she cocks her head to the side as if still hearing it, though there is only silence. She greeted the voice in her mind as it echoed over and over in her own thoughts.

"Yes. I, Katara of the Southern Water Tribe, have shown myself at my weakest," – there were no weapons on her – "and at my strongest. I have come to beg your permission to stand as a lady of the Tribe." The Mighty Elder waited until Katara's voice echoed throughout the commodious igloo before responding. Katara knew that she must be hearing it over and over in her head, such as she had.

"Then, Katara of the Southern Water Tribe, we will test you. You will become a woman of the Tribe," the words echo away and away and away, "if you are lucky."

Katara nods solemnly.

She is told then by another Elder to stay here while they prepare the first task. In the old days, there were four tasks the young ladies had to pass to be seen as a woman. Nowadays, there were only two. One involved mental stimulation, and another physical. Though some women of the Tribe appeared to be lazy and fat, at one point in their lives they had to have been fit enough to win the challenge.

The first task is said to be the mental challenge, and the second task the physical one. She wonders what is taking so long, when the same Elder from minutes earlier comes to lead her away to another icy room, but this time much smaller. Incense, rare in this barren land, burns softly in the corner and Katara can smell lilac and vanilla – strange smells for her nose.

The old and fragile-seeming lady in front of her smiles and opens her mouth. "Golden treasures I contain, guarded by hundreds and thousands. Stored in a labyrinth where no man walks, yet men come often to seize my gold. By smoke I am overcome and robbed, then left to build my treasure anew. What am I?"

A riddle? Katara had always been best at riddles, but this sounded confusing. She may have never heard of the answer before. She thought quickly of the books that she had read about the outside world (the smartest of her age) and the animals. It most likely had to do with an animal.

Well, what animals were golden? The foxes of the forests of the Earth Kingdom, the dogs that lived in holes in the desert… well, what if it wasn't an animal? Perhaps an object. A golden castle, sand, the sun… it must be an animal. But maybe not one that you would think of normally.

"A beehive," Katara says, surprised at her speed. She had heard of bees because of the honey that gets delivered here on a rare chance.

"Correct." The old woman's smile vanishes from her face. "The next task will start in a few minutes."

"That is it?"

"Perhaps you had brought it up to be more than it is," an Elder advised her.

They left and she again waited in a room by herself. The echoes of her last words filled her mind and she concentrated on them, for anything to pass the time. She was not sure how long that she sat there – maybe hours, days even. She never hungered and she never tired.

Finally, after she wasn't sure how long, she stood up and her stiff legs protested but she stretched them nonetheless. The sunlight was gone. She had counted three sunlights and two dark times. That meant it had been three days? Maybe this was some part of the task. But all of the other women had come back only hours later, not days…

Katara walked out into the sunlight. She smelt death and corruption and looking around her she saw bodies and bodies and bodies.

She was not sure what happened. But after giving most of them a decent burial (she was on auto-drive, grief-driven and horribly sad but somehow she managed to bury them all under the snow) she searched for clues of what happened. The people of her Tribe had always said that Katara was cool-headed in any situation, and this counted for that, she guessed.

In the snow sat a pole with a Fire Nation helmet posted on the top. Katara cut it down and threw it into the ocean, but she knew what had happened. What she did not understand was why she was not killed. She would have rather died than have this happen to her – it left her only her absent older brother and father as family, and there were somewhere fighting on the mainland.

Katara cried.

She packed all of her stuff. In only a few hours she had enough food for months (she specifically chose food that would not spoil over time, non-perishable; _unlike her people_ ) and packed it onto the biggest ship that she could man by herself. Katara planned to go to the mainland and search for her father and brother. She knew it was wrong, but Katara took all the money of the villagers.

Bad wasn't exactly what she felt, more like a bit guilty that she wasn't there to protect them - she wasn't there to save her people and her culture. It was actually a quite sizable amount, the money. She packed it into it's own backpack and stored it away in a safe place. The next morning, after some rest, Katara set sail.

The sun rising over the water and ice was a beautiful sight. The color of the horizon was purple as it rose into a light blue. Katara snacked on jerky, dressed warmly, as the small iceboat floated over chilly waters. The icebergs were in the far distance behind her, and she had left behind the last of her past and her future was before her.

A small smile had come over her face and she finally felt free, standing here, feeling the warming wind muss her hair up. And the dolphins, rising out of the water, swam alongside. She took out her map and finds her position, closer to Kyoshi Island than she ever thought she would be. As a woman of the Water Tribe she would have stayed by the man she married until he eventually left to fight in the (seemingly) distant war. Then she would have still stayed in the Water Tribe, never leaving, and raising her children.

She guessed that she should be happy with the fact that she is one of the first Water Tribe ladies to ever leave the South Pole and venture far away, but she still felt disappointment in her gut.

So far the boat had traveled past the Western Air Temple (empty for a century) and past some of the smaller islands of the Earth Kingdom. The sky darkened temporarily and Katara looked up to see heavy clouds approaching and she quickly folded up her map and stuffed it in her pack, along with all the food she can.

Then she prepared for the oncoming storm.

She awoke on a beach somewhere, most likely in the Earth Nation, with her pack damp and her whole body covered with sticky sand. Katara bent water off of herself and with it goes most of the sand. Her pack, or at least the remains of it, was lying farther on it up the beach; she can see it from here.

The waves crashed upon the shore with a determined single-mindedness. The rocks of the world are slowly beaten into sand and everything seems to be going in slow motion in front of her trembling, hesitant eyes as the shells of crustaceans and the spider-legged animals in the shallows are beaten upon by one of the strongest forces of nature in the world, and she breathes in and out. And again.

Calm, she decided, is what she feels, lying in front of so much of her element. Something so much bigger than she had ever been or wanted to be. In her whole life she has never touched sand, so Katara took a moment to revel in it, running it through her fingers and letting every grain drop back to the ground, drop back to its resting place. She sighed softly, somehow content while not knowing where she is or where she will be tomorrow, because she really has nothing to live for and all that matters is _now_.

But after only minutes of her peaceful reverie she is shaken out of it by the rising tide; the cool water tickles the bottom of her feet. She stood up hesitantly, brushing the sand off her dry body. Her pack is lying not so far away and she went to it. Slowly and intentionally she looks into the trees, knowing familiarly the feeling of someone watching her from a distance. Seeing no movement and no outstanding colors, she shrugs to herself and slings her bag over her shoulder, starting to explore the dark forest.

The vines of the forest are thick and tangles, with thorns as long as her pinky finger, but she still moved on. Her clothes were tattered and ripped from the long, bone-like thorns on the vegetation, but she still presses on, farther into the forest. She had no idea where she is going, but yet again, she has nothing to lose.

Noises called to her from all around in the dark forest around her but she pays them no heed, as she has heard of the stories of the people who wander too far from the path. For them the temptation is more than they can take and they fall for the sweet seduction of the forest. It was why not many people went into the forests in the islands off of south of the Earth Kingdom, and the rest of the trees that still resided on the mainland, on the Southern Lands.

A bird chirping wakes her from her silent world and she looks about the now brighter forest, almost vine-free, and knows that she must be deep into the forest, where it surprisingly got clearer and the trees grew farther apart with barely any dangerous vines to entangle the forest wanderers.

And Katara had been sure that no one would ever venture this far into the forest unless they had no choice. Maybe they were hiding from the law, as the enforcers of the Earth Kingdom would never think so much as to explore the forests of dark trees and sudden sounds.

So you can understand Katara's surprise when she happened upon a small campsite this deep in the forest, with a young man and an elderly man sitting comfortably around the source of warmness, drinking tea.

"Uncle, this is ridiculous. We have been traveling for days on end, when will it ever stop? And don't even get me started on the beverage of the day, tea. I mean, really, Uncle –" Iroh cut Zuko off in his rant with a small smile on his face and a wave of his hand. Zuko's confidence wavered for a moment, hanging in the air in front of them.

"Now, Zuko, don't tell me that a nephew of mine does not like tea!" Iroh laughed happily.

Zuko frowned but did not say anything.

They had been traveling for weeks on little rest, mapping out part of the Earth Nation down to the last detail. They were going over the lands of Zhao (the traitor was a title that went unspoken with his name) who was now an advisor to the Earth King in Ba Sing Sei. The plan had been to track him down and take him down from the inside, but Zuko and Iroh were too well known and they needed fresh blood to work their way up in the political system.

They have had no luck so far in the finding of that perfect person.

And it was later, huddled around their small campfire and soaking up the minimum warmth it provided, and drinking tea (much to Zuko's chagrin), when Katara first stumbled upon them.

After the first encounter, in which there was much screaming and mean words said, Iroh welcomed Katara and invited her to drink tea with them. Her hair was scraggly and her clothes ripped in some places, but overall she wasn't too shabby.

Zuko watched with a bemused expression as she hurriedly sips at her tea and eats the dried meat that was offered to her. Iroh made casual conversation with Katara as she continued to politely stuff herself.

"So, young Katara, how have you got yourself stuck in this forest?" Iroh asks politely, sipping his tea with slow, melodic motions (the motions of a tea master). Katara watches him with wary eyes, because she has barely seen people from the other parts of the land. They have an exotic look to them, with their golden eyes and wild brown hair. She has never heard of golden-brown eyes so she watches them carefully, because she does not yet know the outside world.

"I came here after the Southern Tribe was exterminated," she said. _My family is gone_ goes unspoken but it hangs in the air after her words.

"I see," Iroh says, still calm in his own world, still slowly sipping his tea. "Then have you ever been outside of the Pole before?"

"Never," says Katara. It is not unheard of – most people do not go traveling around the world. "I have no idea where I am going either," a tinkling little laugh, "but I make do. I make do."

Says Iroh, "Maybe then," a fleeting glance at Zuko, "you may travel with us." Zuko nods, as if he agrees.

Katara hesitates, before answering quickly, "That would be pleasant."

"Where are you heading to?" She asked the next morning, eyes sandy from sleep.

Iroh exchanged a look with Zuko before he answered almost pertly, "To Ba Sing Sei." Katara had heard about Ba Sing Sei – the most famous Earth city, which has only been broken into by the Fire Nation once, and since then it hasn't been touched by the remotest war source. It is said to be a beautiful city, but full of prejudice for the different classes.

"Really?" Katara asked excitedly, because if there were any place in the Earth Kingdom she would want to go to, it would be to Ba Sing Sei. "That's most wonderful," she said, "May I ask why you are going?"

Zuko sent Iroh a searching look before nodding along with him – a silent discussion. Zuko began to talk. His voice was low and sent shocks throughout Katara, but it was friendly and amiable at the same time. "Ba Sing Sei's government has gone corrupt." He started, "and we are going there to fix it. But there is one thing we are still missing – a contact in the palace. Someone who can work their way up in the government and help justify everything that they do." Zuko sighed, haltingly. "No one is willing."

Katara thought. With her background and losing her family, well, that would make a nice pity story. She had read much about politics from her scrolls that she has borrowed from acquaintances, from Pole and from other places, and knows much about government and ruling. "I'll do it," Katara said willingly, as she took in the awkward looks from Iroh and Zuko. "It's the only thing I can do to repay you."

**(II.)**

**Which never ceaseth to enlarge itself,**

Leaves twittered and fluttered to the ground, like rain dancing across rooftops. The forest is no longer sparse but is now farther apart, the trees like separate neighborhoods in the high city of Ba Sing Sei. Katara has never been to Ba Sing Sei – so she wondered what it will look like. From Iroh's stories the outer walls are so high that no one could ever touch the top from the outside easily.

He also says that the inner walls are just so high that you could never touch the other side.

Zuko, all this time, had barely spoken. She thought that maybe he would talk more if she wasn't there – if was only him and Iroh, maybe his mouth would spill over from all of his unspoken words, a well of good comings. But Katara, though secretly cool on the outside, was still so very curious to what is keeping him quiet.

Maybe if she stayed around long enough, she can find out.

It was night, and the flat plains around them were almost completely quiet. Katara was sitting next to the river, legs folded underneath her, and her hands were holding a cup of clear crystal water. She looked solemnly at her expression, knowing the silence can only be shared.

Then her hands came up quickly, flickering lights dancing across the faces of the dancing women, nighttime falling and a thousand memories of fallen warriors. The water flowed through the air like a graceful swan and twists with the perfection of a swift robin. Moonlight flickered through the water, leaving patterns of warped white light flitting across the ground.

Autumn leaves being crunched behind her alerted her to the presence of another form. She quickly dropped her hands and turns around like lightning, eyes widened with surprise. But it was only Zuko behind her. He held up his hands, as if saying he is coming peacefully, with a crooked smile on his face.

"I didn't know you could waterbend," he said.

She nodded.

"I have never seen a waterbender in action." He completed, wonderingly. While Katara pondered whether she should leave or not, Zuko stepped forward, a predatory look in his eyes.

"I guess you wonder why I don't talk to you," he says. Katara wanted to nod but how close he was to her was throwing Katara off. Her heart was beating so quickly and her breaths were coming much too fast. "It's because I always thought you weren't worthy much of my speech," he whispered, his warm breath touching on her face like the wings of a butterfly, "because I'm a prince. And you're a peasant. But really," his breaths were so even but hers kept coming quicker and quicker, "you're much too smart to be a peasant. Much too talented. Much too," his hand came up to tilt her face to the side, "beautiful."

Katara had kissed boys before but it had never been this powerful or wonderfully passionate, and it had definitely never been this overwhelming. Her mind was cloudy and all she could feel was his hand absently caressing the side of her hip, moving upwards at an alarming rate. What made her so excited was that he didn't even ask, he just did.

He was so cripplingly powerful.

His tongue lapped itself against her lower lip, pushing for admittance. She gasped and willingly opened her mouth – his hand was rapidly pulling down the sides of her robe and his mouth left hers to suck at the side of her neck.

Katara realized what was happening and she pulled away, upset. His eyes opened and looked straight into hers – the golden color of hot fire meeting the blue color of healing water. She wished he would understand.

"You seem so cold," he said, caressing her face, "but you're really so warm."

And then he was gone.

When Iroh woke up the next morning he was sure that something had happened last night between his nephew and the water tribe girl. They didn't act any different but Iroh had always been aware to these little things. The way her hand trembled when she passed him his breakfast plate, and the way his eyes flickered.

And then there was the abnormally large mark on her neck that she had tried to cover up so desperately.

But, Iroh had always been aware to these things.

"Have a nice night?" He asked before they set off.

Katara politely answered yes while Zuko just nodded. Yes, something definitely had happened last night.

She was very frustrated, as angry as a mother lion whose prey had gotten away from her at the very last moment. Sometimes you could tell she was getting agitated by the way she said things. At night she still practiced waterbending, secretly wishing he would show up again and play the innocent act. But weeks later he still hadn't shown up at night and she practiced no more.

They had traveled all the way from the Southern Coast of the Earth Kingdom almost all the way to the Northeastern part of the kingdom. In other words, they were very close to the outer walls of Ba Sing Sei. Katara had been in many small cities along the way and had slowly, with help from her traveling companions, got used to the way things worked in the realistic world.

"So." She comments lazily, the apple in her hands already bitten in two places. "This is how a market works."

Zuko glanced at her from above a couple sacks of vegetables. "You mean they didn't have markets where you come from?" He asks, the first time he has really talked to her in days. A chilly wind blows through the town and Katara shivers, even though she knows that it isn't that cold.

"It was just…" she looks around at the bustling small town and shakes her head, wordless. "Different."

"How different?" Iroh asks, coming over with baskets full of rice and bread. They had come to the market to restock all the food that they eaten on their way here – it had been a very long trip so far and with the added personage of Katara, even though she barely ate anything, was unaccounted for so the original food rations had been refigured.

"Well," Katara starts, taking another bite of the juicy apple. A drop escapes her mouth and she unconsciously moves her tongue to lick it away. "Everything was traded. We didn't use currency as much with each other. And the things we bought were definitely different." She picks up a tomato to demonstrate. "We couldn't grow things like this in the Pole, so we had to buy it. And it was very cold, so they didn't last long. Down there, this was a rarity." The tomato is put back in the basket and she smiles. "I never liked tomatoes much anyways."

"Really?" Iroh's mouth is now turned into a mocking smile. "You better start liking them soon, because tonight I am making us a fabulous feast!"

"I didn't know you could cook," Zuko says, one eyebrow raised and with a crooked smile on his face, "uncle."

He looked deeply offended at this. "Of course I can cook, Zuko! And definitely more than just soldier's rations," he assured them.

Minutes later they were leaving the market and heading to the rooms that they had rented out for the night. Once they arrived Iroh hurried away to make sure that his using the kitchen that night wouldn't be a problem with the cook, and Zuko took their bags with him. This left Katara standing in the common room of the inn, wondering how she got here.

She sighed and headed up to her room.

That night, while Iroh was cooking in the kitchen, Katara and Zuko sat listening to people attempt to entertain the people crowding the inn. There was a smoky haze in the air from the pipes being smoked and a dull evening light was coming through the closed shutters. Her hand rested underneath her chin and her eyes were half-closed, half-open with weariness. She could not wait to sleep on an _actual_ bed for a night after all that traveling and sleeping on the ground.

Suddenly a man cleared his throat at the front of the room, and Katara shuddered herself out of her reverie to look at him. A man with a beautiful harp was on the stage. The harp was extraordinary, she could see. It was made of cherry maple, a wood only found in remote places on Kyoshi Island, and was intricately carved with what looked like a story.

While the harp was wonderfully magnificent, the man was less than. He looked rather shady, with scraggly white-grey hair and squinted eyes looking out at the inquiring audience.

Then the man roughly sat down and began to play the harp.

The first thought Zuko had was, _how can something so beautiful produce a sound so horribly bad?_

He blocked out the sound mentally and watched as the people booed and called out to the man on stage.

"You're horrible!"

"Aren't beautiful young women supposed to play the harp?"

"Yeah, that guys right! Where are the beautiful young women?"

"Why can't she play it?" An anonymous man pointed to Katara and all eyes turned to hair. Her dewy cheeks blushed scarlet and looked around as if to say _me?_ – and the rest of the eyes responded _yes._

"But –" she was interrupted by Zuko.

"Go ahead, waterbender." He said tauntingly. "I bet you can't even play the harp."

Katara got up, indignant, with her fists clenched lightly and her cheeks flushed with embarrassment and anger. Her hand came up to the ties that held her hair back, and she quickly undid them, letting her long and shiny hair fall down to her waist. Sending an angry look back at an amused Zuko, she went to the raised stage.

Her nimble fingers caressed the light wood and she ran her hand down it, her fingers paused when they reached the strings. She looked out at the captive audience and pulled one experimentally back, and let the sound echo throughout the inn.

She played the harp wonderfully.

The next morning was quiet as they left the town, and every so often a chilly wind would run through the town, reminding the world that autumn was soon on its way. It was early, the sun had just risen, but they always seemed to leave around this time, when the world was waking up.

Iroh looked back at the sleepy Katara and the wide-awake Zuko, whose eyes were open completely and aware of his surroundings. He decided that his nephew had woken up earlier than him or Katara.

"Uncle Iroh," Katara said, using Iroh's nickname, "last nights dinner was spectacular. I really enjoyed it. You are a wonderful cook."

"Just between you and me," Iroh chuckled, "I am a wonderful cook." At this both Katara and Iroh laughed, and when they stopped they listened to it fade off into the distance.

Hours later, right before noon, Iroh told them that he would scout ahead for a good place to eat their packed lunch. "I'll be back soon," he promised them.

This left Katara, who was now awake fully and looking about at the turning scenery, the autumn leaves falling to the ground even though summer hadn't ended yet, and Zuko uncomfortably alone.

After a minute's silence she said, "Zuko, do the leaves always fall this early into autumn?"

"No."

She frowned at his short response.

"Well?" she prodded him.

He cocked one eyebrow.

"Well why is it falling so early this year?" She asked.

Zuko looked at the falling leaves, as if just really seeing them for the first time. The chilly wind blew through the path and Zuko and Katara shivered, even though they are wearing warm clothing. "I heard some men talking back at the village about how winter was approaching too quickly…" Zuko said, his eyes lingering on the orange trees, "but I didn't notice that it was _this_ early."

He looked worried.

Right at this moment Iroh came back announcing that he had found them a place to eat lunch and take a break at. He led them to a small clearing in the Earth Kingdom's northern forest, near a stream.

They eat lunch, and later, set out again for Ba Sing Sei.

It was sprawled across the valleys, large and almost unassuming. The sun glared unto the green and white rooftops, letting the world wash over and waves crash upon distant and far away beaches. The outer wall was so high that Katara could barely see the sky over the top, and the sky was blue with dots of clouds moving slowly across the horizon.

Katara's mouth was hanging open a bit and she reminded herself to close it before she looked back out once again at the large city, the largest unified thing she had seen except for the sea, which was bigger than the world itself in her mind. Every house was so tidy, even in the lower tiers of the city. Through the streets ran the river Ba Sing Sei – after the city, which was much like the canals that the Northern Water Tribe supposedly had.

Iroh saw her staring out over the large city and poked Zuko in the side with his elbow. Zuko smiled gently at her, holding back laughter.

"This, Katara," he said, "is Ba Sing Sei."

"Everything is already set up." He told her, while already motioning to the servants to fix them dinner. "You don't have a new identity, that is, we will still call you Katara."

Iroh nodded sagely in the background.

"Your position in the government is secure. I know the King, and he needed an official. I got him one, and we agreed on the no questions asked concept." He looked at Katara, as if scrutinizing her. "We'll need to make some changes." Zuko announced, having a maid usher her into the other room while whispering quiet direction in her ear. The maid nodded enthusiastically.

Suddenly Katara wasn't so sure of her decision.

"If we need to contact you," she heard one of them call after her, "we will give you a lotus tile."

She was seriously starting the question the sanity of these people.

"I can't do this! I'm not prepared! I'm just a peasant girl, really, I have no idea what I'm doing!" Katara exclaimed as Zuko and Iroh pushed her through the halls of the Royal Palace. Katara was excellently done up, and she looked particularly pretty.

"Now, now, Katara, I am very assured in your abilities." Iroh said soothingly.

"You'll be fine," was Zuko's gruff reply.

Then both of them practically pushed her into the council chamber.

**(III.)**

**Till by broad spreading it disperses to naught.**

His eyes were narrowed at the slim form of a woman not far away from him, and he watched her as she spun around in circles with all the different men that had asked her to dance, not one of them the man she was courting. In fact, she wasn't even courting anyone at that moment. He had thought about courting her before, but had decided she was a little too wild and a little too unworthy of it.

She was now a noble in the Earth Nation court (having the title bestowed upon her after her sudden and over-taking appearance), and her makeshift-family was very influential. Her dowry covered the most beautiful land in the whole kingdom that the King ruled over (though it was not large it was gorgeous), and many a man had fallen for her soft, blue eyes. Many a man had also had his heart broken before by her, but that mattered not to them. Almost every man in the court had tried to get to her money and wealth, and fell for her in the process.

He was the only man left that had not fallen hard for her, and he was not planning to anytime in the near future. Zuko, of course, had known her (but he was not familiar with this feeling in the pit of his stomach – not jealousy, never jealousy). He walked toward the circle of men surrounding her body, letting his hard face settle into a happy look and a small smile. All the boys moved out of his way, her companion's way.

Her face was soft, still retaining its childish look – she was only sixteen, for Agni's sake – and the baby blue eyes did nothing to stop that. Her hair was a dark brown and piled up elegantly on top of her head, with some stray strands falling into her face. She had a small, delicate nose but a full mouth and a chin that he decided showed that she could be stubborn. Her dress was a dark blue that did much to compliment her curvy body, and her slightly pale skin (she spent too much time inside) looked almost silky.

She fit in with the Earth Kingdom perfectly.

The blue eyes widened at seeing him, but almost immediately went back to their normal size and she curtsied before standing back up to see him. He held out his hand to her and smirked, "Would you like to dance?"

Katara smiled up at him, and put her small hand into his larger one, and said, "Of course, my Lord." There was no indication of recognition. She swept her skirts out around her and a small circle of tile cleared just for them as he led her to the center of the dance floor.

She met his golden eyes and placed her hands on his shoulders as he moved his to her waist and she narrowed her eyes as they went a bit too far down (the prince was such a player!). He smirked again at this and let go of one side of her waist as he spun her out and then pulled her back in, her head fitting perfectly under his chin. He swung her back out for a second spin as the audience around them clapped and applauded the move.

She spun back at him, then spun out and replaced her hands in the correct places and looked him in the eyes. Their feet moved to the exotic song and she smiled as the music ended and another man quickly stepped in front of Prince Zuko and offered his hand to her. She places hers in his and looked back once more at Zuko over her shoulder. He just smiled and walked away, ignoring her look that she sent him, and settled back into his plush seat.

He found her much later in the gardens. Inside of the large Earth Nation building the ball went on. Prince Zuko could hear the soft melody of the music caressing his ears and sighed.

Katara's hair was down now, out of the intricate style it was in before. Her face was pointed the other way, so she couldn't see him, but they both knew there was a reason for her being there. In his hand he could see as she carelessly fiddled with something.

He lifted his fingers up to delicately touch his mask, but pulled them down again quickly. Zuko cleared his throat to announce his presence. Katara instantly jumped up.

"I got your note," she said, holding up the White Lotus tile. Her eyes were apprehensive. "What did you need to talk about?"

He began taking off his mask. "Katara, there might be another attempt to kidnap..."

"Sh!" she said suddenly, laying a hand on the mask, "I think someone's coming!"

He quickly pulled his arms around her and hid them behind the long, wispy branches of a nearby willow tree. Katara could feel his hot breath against the top of her head and it lightly tickled her ears and set afire feelings that she didn't even know existed.

Footsteps echoed in the courtyard, but the sound was so distant to Katara. She breathed in the scent of the willow, and in doing so, brought upon herself Zuko's scent. Immediately she stopped breathing through her nose and opted not to smell for fear of finding out something she didn't want to know.

The footsteps stop and a quiet 'hello?' came from in front of the branches.

Zuko breathed in relief.

"That's who I want you to meet," he told Katara quietly.

With his arm still tight around her waist he pulled them both out of the willow tree's cover, giving Katara immense relief at being in the open again. His other arm gestured to the boy standing in the garden, who was standing there almost bashfully.

"This," Zuko said, his voice practically filled with pride, "is the Avatar."

"I still don't believe this."

"You don't have to. Just let us do the believing. You do the work."

The boy Zuko had explained was the Avatar sat at the table and waving his hands around wildly while trying to convey to Katara how he was going to get around so quickly.

"Really, Lady Katara, I really insist that you don't ask. It might upset your faith."

"What, don't tell me that you go around riding on a flying bison, or something ridiculous like that!"

"Me?" The Avatar pointed at himself and laughed. "Lady Katara, don't mix me up with my grandfather."

A moment of silence passed.

"It would be wise to pick your chin off the table," Iroh advised. "You do not want to catch flies."

The night was cold and it almost sent shivers up Zuko's spine; almost. He raised his body temperature unconsciously and relaxed in the chilly air.

"What was it you were going to tell me earlier?" Katara stepped out from behind some bushes in the house's side courtyard. "In the garden?" she prompted.

"There may be another attempt to kidnap Ambassador Kaelin." His eyes are downcast, and his brows meet at the center of his face. He looks preoccupied.

"Oh. That's all?"

"What do you mean that's all?" He demanded.

"It just sounded like you wanted to say something else, that's all." She shrugged her shoulders and made to walk away. Zuko inwardly cursed.

"Katara," he said hesitantly. She stopped moving, but did not turn around. "Come back," he commanded. He held out his arm and she quietly stepped into his embrace, letting his arm fall casually around her shoulders.

She shivered lightly, but it wasn't because of the air. _They both knew_. Voluntarily Zuko raised his body temperature a notch. Her hair fell across his arm and goose bumps fell up and down his skin.

"You did that on purpose," she accused.

"Hn."

Katara sighed and settled against him more comfortably. "You seem so cold," she purred, "but you're really so warm." She looked him up and down from the side and winked slowly at him.

_Gods,_ he thought, _that is just too much to take._ He maneuvered her so she was leaning against the railing in front of him, and he lowered his face to right above hers.

"The least you could do," he said, locking his flashing eyes with her dancing ones, "is come up with a more imaginative line."

He slowly and deliberately pressed his lips to hers, making sure that her body couldn't squirm, she couldn't even move. Katara desperately moved her mouth against his mouth, wanting comfort in her time of disbelief and disillusionment.

Zuko looked down at her, and she pulled away.

He exhaled into the cold air, and wondered.

"When I wake up tomorrow, will you be there?" The doorway is cold and rough, and she can feel nails digging into her leaning body. Her eyes are closed and she listens as he stops packing.

"Will you be there?" Her hands tremble as she reaches out toward him, toward something she has to hold on to.

He does not answer.

That morning she watches him as rides out into the cold, and a hand pats her on the back.

"He will come back," Iroh says. "He always does."

And somehow, she isn't sure this time.

Avatar Aang sits at the dining table and holds his tiles in his hand. With a sigh, he sets them down and looks up at the man sitting in front of him. "Iroh, when will this end?" he asks him, face full of unadulterated trust and innocence.

"When will what end?"

"This war, this hungering war! Where no one can ever really win!"

Iroh laughs, also putting down his Pai-sho tiles. "No one ever really wins, Avatar, so of course it will never end. If not the Fire Nation, then someone else. Peace is a distant memory, a fairy tale."

Aang nods sadly.

Iroh whispers, as if telling him a secret. "We can only make the best of it that we can."

It is only weeks later when the sky turns dark and there is fear in the hearts of the people of the land – it is the solar eclipse that the war has been waiting for. In the two weeks between Zuko leaving and the solar eclipse, Katara had traveled to the battle settlements. The government had slowly set up a small city near the main legions, and Katara had traveled there with them.

When Zuko saw her, he wondered why she was there. But before he could even open his mouth, she ran into his arms. He could feel dampness on his shirt and realized she was crying. With that thought, he patted her back consolingly but awkwardly – he had no idea what to do in these situations.

Her eyes looked up at him with longing, and to cover the silence he spoke.

"Your father and brother are here."

She closed her eyes as more tears leaked out.

"Can… I visit them?"

He nods his head slowly.

When Katara came back, later that night, she didn't go to her own tent. She stood at the opening of Zuko's tent, watching his bare torso. His muscles rippled as he wrote something down, and Katara worked to keep her mouth from visibly watering at the sight of him.

He looked absently over his shoulder at her and frowned lightly. Her brows were furrowed agitatedly and her eyes seemed almost confused.

"How was your visit with your family?" Katara shrugged her shoulders lightly. "I thought you hadn't seen them in a long time."

He studied her as she took her time answering. Still leaning lightly against the harder material of the tent's opening, she looked quietly outside. "It was … different. It seemed cold."

_You seem so cold, but you're really so warm._

"I know what you mean."

She looked at him with those smoldering eyes and he couldn't help but wonder what if.

And, oh yes, he did what if.

"We can't do this. I never became a woman in my tribe, I never finished the ceremony."

"I can think of more than one way to make you a woman."

Tomorrow the sun rose over the blood red horizon and Katara wondered where the time went. Was it really just almost a year ago when she had paddled onto the water with tears in her eyes and determination in her heart? Had it only been months ago she met Zuko and Iroh? Had it only been weeks since she had joined the Earth Kingdom council?

How long had it been since she had been part of the secret community of the White Lotus?

_Too long_ , she thought. _Too long has this war existed._

With only blankets around her shivering body, she watched the dark sky and the light bulb of yellow move up over the violet mountains of the western lands. Today was the day that the war would begin really for her; today is the day that it would really end.

Wasn't it just not-so-long-ago that she had started the rite to becoming a woman, and had just finished the night before?

It was still early, before half the people even woke, but she was dressed and filling her waterskin. Her adept fingers uncorked the bottle and let the murky old water flow out as she re-filled it with fresh water from the dwindling stream. Closing her eyes and breathing in, she could imagine she was in the forest again and it was just yesterday when she smiled and laughed around the fire.

And she wasn't here, getting ready to heal to the sick because Zuko thought she shouldn't risk herself during the fighting. He told her that she wasn't a trained fighter; she shouldn't pretend to act like one. She agreed with him reluctantly, only to make him happy and partly because she knew it was true that it would be a gamble on her life to stick her directly on the battlefield.

Later she will say that she can't remember most of the battle – that there was too much pain, that there was just too much hurt. She remembers frantic moments with beating hearts and people who no longer had any pulses.

She remembers an old man, who had only fought because he insisted it was his right as a citizen of the 'new world'. He had fought, and his hands were old and his body wasn't made for war or for battle. She sat by his side because she couldn't do anything. She let him die because he was already dead.

It's after the battle and Katara feels like the world is falling down on her. The scent of coppery blood is in the air and every once and awhile she can hear the twang of arrows being shot into the enemy and ally wounded, so that they died with remembrance of mercy.

She ran and she ran until she hit the soft warmness of something she would always remember, and the smell of _Zuko._

He seemed so cold, but he was always so warm.

"Bring me home," she said to him. "Take me to a place where there is peace and I won't have to wake up tomorrow dreaming of a better land." She sobbed into his shirt.

He held onto her because he had nothing else to say.

The glory of the battle was really nothing – almost everyone that had fought had ended up dead. Only a few hundred survived of the thousands on the battlefield, but again the world was at peace. Zuko took control of his nation. Ba Sing Sei became secluded again, where the war never existed.

The Avatar saved the people and whispered stories to children about flying bison, and Iroh drank his tea with a dignity he always had.

Sokka and his father traveled to the North Pole to plead for people to re-build their southern home.

And Katara? She went home, to a place where there was peace and she didn't have to wake up the next morning dreaming of a better land.

Katara woke up in the arms of Zuko and knew she had done the right thing. For the love, for the happiness, for the non-existing glory. The glory she wished she hadn't had and the glory she wished had died on the battlefield.

 

 


End file.
